Accelerando Ma Non Troppo
by tealgirl713
Summary: When Arthur moved to America and joined the high school band, he was expecting something a little more...refined. What he got was, well, not. And to make things even worse, he's forced to sit next to the most idiotic American he has ever met, for the entire year. Graduation can't come soon enough. High School AU, USUK.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello people!**

**I started writing this thing a long time ago and finally finished it today because of boredom.**

**This is a band fanfiction, and I've tried to explain things really well, but if you're confused about anything, anything at all, don't be afraid to PM me.**

**This is also a USUK fanfiction, but I might throw in a few side pairings that I haven't decided on yet.**

**Disclaimer: Tealgirl713 does not own Hetalia. Or any pieces of music mentioned in this fanfiction. **

* * *

"Hey, Artie! Artie! Look, I'm a trumpet player, too!"

Arthur Kirkland watched un-amusedly as Alfred Jones pulled the mouthpiece off of his saxophone and blew into it, causing a terrible noise to emit from the horn. The entire band room covered their ears.

"Alfred Jones, if I ever hear that noise coming from that instrument ever again, I will personally see to it that you are expelled. Do you understand me?" came the voice of their band director.

"Yes, Mr. Edelstein," Alfred said tiredly. He flashed a grin at Arthur. "Sounded pretty good though, right?"

"If by 'pretty good' you mean like a beached whale, then yes, I suppose it was 'pretty good'."

"Sweet! Thanks, dude!"

Arthur could only roll his eyes as he turned back to his sheet music. If only he didn't have to sit by that insufferable American every day in band. But Mr. Edelstein had assigned them seats at the beginning of the year, and he hadn't changed them, even once. Arthur sat the farthest right of the trumpet players, right next to Alfred, the farthest left of the alto saxophones. It was an unfortunate arrangement for Arthur, as the lot of the saxophones sounded like dying cows.

He turned to the trumpeter sitting next to him, Yao, with whom he got along with fairly well. "I swear, Alfred has no grasp of sarcasm at all."

Yao nodded in agreement, but before he could respond, Mr. Edelstein called for attention from the band. Everyone turned to the front to face him.

"Now that we are all paying attention for once, I would like you to get out Second Suite in F and get ready to play the fourth movement, Fantasia on the Dargason."

The class obliged, pulling out their individual copies of the piece from their music folders. Arthur was smiling. This was one of his favorite pieces of music, and even though it was hard, it was still immensely fun to play. As an added bonus, it was British. Arthur always had a sense of pride in British things. Probably because he had lived in London for most of his life.

Alfred, however, did not feel the same way. "Aww, do we have to play it?" he complained. "It's too hard!"

"It wouldn't be so difficult if you actually practiced it," Arthur said.

"Hey! I do too practice! Just, y'know, not a whole lot."

"I'd be surprised if you even brought your instrument home."

An angry voice was heard from the other side of the alto saxophone section, where Mr. Edelstein was chastising one of them for forgetting his music.

"Gilbert Beilschmidt, this is the second time this week you haven't had your music with you in class!" he said. "How do you expect to get better at playing your instrument if it just sits underneath your chair during class?"

"I am way too awesome to play this stupid music!" Gilbert said grinning evilly up at the teacher. Mr. Edelstein just rolled his eyes and walked back up to the front of the room. There was no use arguing with Gilbert when he was like this. It was widely known that Gilbert was used to being able to do whatever he wanted to in class, seeing as his father was the principal.

The class waited in anticipation as Mr. Edelstein raised his baton. He counted them off, and then the saxophones began the piece with the first couple of notes. Or at least tried to.

Arthur had to admit, they were doing a little better than usual today. But not by much. A couple of them missed their cues at the beginning and they had to start the song over multiple times before Mr. Edelstein was satisfied. Thus Arthur was angry. Didn't the saxophones realize that they weren't the only people in the band? Yet every band period, they monopolized Mr. Edelstein's time and hardly anyone else got to play.

Finally, miraculously, the saxophones managed to get through the first sixteen measures without screwing up. Arthur raised his trumpet to his lips a few beats early in anticipation, and joined in with the melody. The notes were high, but Arthur hit them with practiced ease. He had gotten quite good at the trumpet, back when he lived in London. His family moved to America right before the start of the school year, and he had signed up for the school band right away.

They hit a trouble spot in the piece, the first euphonium solo, and Mr. Edelstein stopped the band. He went to the back of the room to help out their euphonium player, Kiku Honda. Arthur always wondered how short, little Kiku was able to support the large, brass instrument, but he managed to hold his own.

Once Mr. Edelstein was completely absorbed in helping Kiku, Arthur got up to get a drink of water from the sink that was unfortunately placed all the way across the room. When he got back to his seat, he noticed two things. One, his trumpet was gone. Two, Alfred was grinning like a complete lunatic.

"Alfred," Arthur began, his eyes flashing dangerously. "What did you do with my trumpet?"

"What d'ya mean, Artie?" Alfred asked, giving him a too-innocent smile. "I didn't even notice it was gone!"

Arthur had had enough of the stupid American's antics. Checking over his shoulder to make sure Mr. Edelstein was still occupied, he reached forward and grabbed Alfred by the collar, bringing him right up to his face.

"You tell me where my trumpet is _right now,_ Alfred Jones, or I swear to _God _I will _castrate _you."

"Fine, dude! Jeez!" Alfred said, putting his hands up in mock surrender. "It's in the cabinet over there."

Arthur let go of him and rushed over to the cabinet Alfred had pointed at, pulling out his trumpet and checking it for the smallest hint of damage. Luckily for his sanity (and Alfred's health), there wasn't a scratch on it. Arthur had brought this trumpet with him all the way from England. He would be crushed if anything bad happened to it.

When Arthur returned to his seat, Mr. Edelstein was up in the front of the room again and ready to conduct the band. "Alright everyone, let's start at Kiku's first solo. Kiku, remember to play loudly. You are the only person in your section."

Kiku nodded back at him, and then they were counted off again. Arthur counted the rests to his part in his head, ignoring Alfred doing the same thing out loud. Didn't the git know he was distracting everyone else around him?

The rest of the band period passed without much incident, with the class practicing the same song over and over right up until the bell rang. There was a flurry of movement as everyone gathered their things together. The students left in small groups, laughing and talking. Arthur found himself to be one of the last ones in there, along with Alfred and a few others. His eyes met Alfred's for one moment before the other winked at him, and reached down to grab Arthur's trumpet case, now containing his trumpet.

"Alfred," Arthur warned. But it was too late. Alfred was already halfway out the door.

"Bollocks," he cursed, picking his backpack off the ground and hurrying after Alfred. His next class was already at the opposite end of the school. Alfred was just going to make him late now.

"Alfred!" Arthur shouted as he weaved his way through the congested hallway of the school. He spotted Alfred right away by his height, and managed to push by everyone in between them, finally walking at a brisk pace beside him.

"Alfred, give me my trumpet back."

"No!" Alfred laughed and sped up, obviously trying to lose Arthur in the crowd. But Arthur would have none of that. He huffed in a breath and followed right behind him, making desperate grabs at his instrument.

"Give it back!" he said, once he finally managed to get a hold on the side handle. "Alfred, I'm going to be late for my class!"

"Luckily for you, we've got the same second period class!" came the reply, hard to hear over all the other conversations in the hall. "So you're only late if I am!" Arthur had forgotten about that. He had his first, second, and sixth period classes with that git. Lucky him.

* * *

Alfred laughed to himself as he ascended the stairs to his history classroom, Arthur close behind him. It was so easy for Alfred to tease him.

"Git," Arthur said as Alfred entered the classroom, still holding the trumpet. The two boys sat on the opposite sides of the classroom, and they split to go to their respective seats.

Alfred tried really hard to concentrate on the lesson, but history really wasn't his thing, what with all the dates and times you had to memorize. So during the lesson he kind of zoned out, focusing instead on Arthur, who was sending him a death glare from across the room. It made him feel like laughing, at least.

Once the class was over, Arthur wasted no time in walking straight over to Alfred.

"I want my trumpet back," he demanded. Alfred chuckled. It was cute that he was still trying.

"How about I give it back to you at the end of the day?"

"You-"Arthur started, but he was cut off by the teacher walking right next to the two of them. Arthur wasn't anywhere near academically suicidal enough to swear in front of a teacher.

"See ya later, Artie!" Alfred said, grinning at him one last time before walking to his next class. Arthur was left there to sputter and yell back,

"Don't call me that!"

* * *

**And there you have it, folks. The first chapter of my new fanfiction. **

**The song they're playing, Fantasia on the Dargason, is a pretty dang famous piece of music. If you haven't heard it, you should go look it up on YouTube.**

**Reviews are greatly appreciated, and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me with them.**

**Oh, and try to see if you can figure out what the title means! It actually does have a significant meaning in the story.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, I'm back!**

**I have actually created an update schedule I might stick to. I'll update every Friday, this one week and Forever The Hero the next. That means I have to get started on the next chapter for that fanfiction.**

**Disclaimer: Tealgirl713 does not own Hetalia.**

* * *

"I heard that we're doing the lockdown drill today, _mes amis_."

"Are you serious? That's awesome! Antonio, remember last year?"

"Ah, _si! _We were having such a great time in the closet! Too bad Lovi didn't join us…"

Arthur was trying his very hardest to ignore the group that was known throughout the entire school as the Bad Touch Trio. He _really _didn't want to know what the three of them got up to in the closet last year. He was, however, curious about the lockdown drill everyone seemed to be talking about this morning. So he had no choice but to turn to Alfred and ask him for information.

"Oh Artie, you're gonna love it!" Alfred told him, not even noticing when he scoffed at that infernal nickname. "See, every year, the police send in a guy that pretends to be a _real _intruder! Isn't that great?"

"Sure…"

"Anyway, the drama club kids get covered in fake blood and the intruder guy pretends to shoot them! It's so cool!"

Arthur was a bit skeptic. "I fail to see the allure in listening to teenagers scream bloody murder for an hour straight."

Alfred just rolled his eyes and playfully punched him on the shoulder. "Just you wait, Artie. Just you wait."

Slightly worried now, Arthur continued to set up his trumpet. The lockdown drill was supposed to start at any moment, but Mr. Edelstein was going to get as much playing time in as he could.

But Alfred didn't even get the chance to do his customary "warm-up" routine (which consisted of him playing the loudest and wildest his instrument would let him) before several screams could be heard in the hall outside, as well as two loud bangs. Then the announcements came on.

"Your attention, please. There is an intruder in the building. Commence lockdown procedures."

The second the announcements ended, everyone was up and scrambling around, trying to get into the corners and closets of the band room. Arthur was lucky enough to get into the largest closet, and closed the door behind him, ready to sit in the dark, bored out of his mind for the next hour.

However, that was not to be. For there was another occupant in the closet.

"_Ohonhonhonhonhon! Bonjour, _Arthur!"

"Oh bloody hell," Arthur said, opening the door of the closet immediately. There was _no way _he was going to spend an entire hour alone in the closet with that frog.

Not wanting to risk another closet with mysterious occupants, Arthur went to find a corner to sit in and was dismayed to find Alfred following him.

"Go find your own corner, git," he said, swatting at Alfred as if he were a fly.

"Hey! You _know _you want me to sit with you! That way I can protect you if the bad guy gets in!"

"It's a drill, idiot." But Arthur protested no further, and the two of them sat in the corner.

Problem was, they sat on the person already there.

"Oh! I'm dreadfully sorry! I didn't mean to sit on you!" Arthur said, jumping up.

"No, it's okay, it happens a lot," said the kid Arthur had sat on. Looking at him closely, Arthur noticed he bore a remarkable similarity to Alfred. Hopefully their personalities were not similar at all. Arthur didn't think he could take another Alfred in his life. One was already too much.

Alfred stood up again and smiled at Arthur.

"This is my cousin, Matthew! He's from Canada, but he's lived with me since forever!"

"Ah," Arthur commented, looking over the two of them again. "That explains the similarities between you two."

"Yep! Mom's still surprised we aren't secret twins or something."

"Sorry to interrupt," Matthew said quietly. Arthur wondered if he was a shy kid or if he was just naturally that quiet.

"No, it's perfectly alright. What is it, Matthew?" Arthur asked.

I was thinking we should probably be quiet. It is a lockdown drill, after all."

"Oh. Right." The two arguing blondes promptly shut up and sat down on either side of Matthew. There were a few others in their corner, Vash Zwingli and his little sister Lilli, along with Lovino Vargas, who appeared to be hiding from Antonio. From what Arthur had learned about Antonio and the Bad Touch Trio in general since he came to this school, he wasn't surprised.

"Is that bastard gone yet?" Lovino said, sticking his head out from his hiding place behind Vash (which Vash didn't look too happy about). He saw a flash of the Spaniard's brown hair and crawled even further into the corner, his head now tucked into his knees. "Shit…hide me!"

Lilli, one of the sweetest girls Arthur had ever met, began to move in front of him, only too happy to hide him.

"Looks like he's going into the closet…Francis is in there," Arthur mused, watching Antonio enter the closet, followed closely by Gilbert. "Now Gilbert's in there, too…Damn, it's the entire BTT."

"Kinda makes you wonder what they're doing in there," Alfred said, grinning. Lilli looked confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Vash sent Alfred a gaze that would have terrified a basilisk.

"Nothing, Lilli," Arthur answered quickly. "Alfred was just being stupid. As usual."

"Hey!" Alfred sputtered out before he was shushed by Matthew. "That's not nice!" he continued in a quieter tone.

"The truth hurts sometimes, git."

"You should know! Are those eyebrows, or furry monsters attached to your face?"

"Shut up about my eyebrows."

"Ooh, don't like it when people talk about your eyebrows, huh? Artie has big eyebrows! Artie has big eyebrows!"

Alfred would have been a dead man right then and there if there hadn't been a particularly loud scream from right outside the door, accompanied by lots of pounding.

"Please let us in! He's going to kill us!" came a male voice. One of the flute players, Feliks, let out a loud and dramatic gasp.

"That's Toris! We like, totally have to save him!"

The screams from outside got even louder as gunshot noises were heard.

"TORIS!" Feliks practically screamed.

"It's only a drill, for God's sake!" Arthur said. "Calm down!"

"Yes, do shut up or I will put all of you into detention," warned Mr. Edelstein.

The rest of their time in the drill passed much like that. Someone talking louder, followed by either Ludwig, Gilbert's younger brother, or Arthur telling the person to shut up. Funnily enough, the room was never quite silent, even though they were supposed to be during the drill.

The second the announcements came on, telling everyone the drill was over, Arthur sprang up immediately, stomping his leg on the ground. It had fallen asleep while he was sitting still.

Mr. Edelstein called the class to order by rapping his baton against the top of the podium. Everyone's eyes fell upon him and he began to speak.

"Regretfully, the drill has gone too long and we barely have enough time to warm up. You are free to spend the last few minutes here doing anything, as long as it is within scho- wait, where are Francis, Gilbert, and Antonio?"

A few of the students that had been in band last year, as well as the ones who knew the BTT really well, started giggling. Arthur rolled his eyes at them. "Mr. Edelstein, they're in the closet."

Mr. Edelstein let out an exasperated sigh. "Of course," he said, before walking over to the closet. Some of the other students followed closely after him, for a reason Arthur did not grasp. Were they trying to see if there was anything "going on" in the closet? He couldn't fathom why anyone would ever want to do that.

Mr. Edelstein was now at the door to the closet. He raised his fist and knocked on it. Everyone could hear several loud crashes coming from inside. Hearing the noise, Mr. Edelstein flung open the door to be encountered with Francis, Gilbert, and Antonio lying in a huddled mess of choir robes and small percussion instruments.

"Bonnefoy! Beilschmidt! Carriedo! Mr. Edelstein shouted, red in the face from anger. "Report to the principal's office immediately!"

The three of them scrambled up quickly, not wanting to disobey Mr. Edelstein when he was this mad.

"I can't believe they actually got caught this year!" Alfred said.

"Didn't they get in trouble last year, too?" Arthur asked.

"Ha, nope!" Alfred laughed. "They were out of the closet right when the drill ended. They are going to get in so much trouble!"

"Gilbert deserves it, though," came another voice from behind the two of them. Arthur turned around and saw one of the few girls in the band, Elizaveta, standing there.

"Hey Lizzy!" Alfred grinned. The two of them high-fived while Arthur stood there like a third wheel.

"I wanted to ask you something, Alfred," she said. "There's a party on Saturday at Feliks's house. You wanna come?"

"A party? Sweet! I will _so _be there!"

"Arthur, you should come too," Elizaveta said, turning to him.

"Oh, I don't know…" he mumbled.

"Dude! Artie! You should totally come!" Alfred said, almost jumping up and down with excitement.

"How many times do I have to tell you that it's Arthur, you git?"

"Obviously not enough," Elizaveta said, a small smirk on her face. "So, will we see you there, Arthur?"

Feeling the pressure of two pairs of eyes on him, Arthur had no choice but to say yes. To which both Alfred and Elizaveta squealed in delight (well, Elizaveta squealed. Alfred did the manly equivalent of squealing).

"That's great, Arthur!" Elizaveta said. "I'll see you two at the party!" she called as she walked away.

Once she was gone, Alfred turned back to Arthur. "You're going to love this party, Artie-"

"Arthur."

"-Arthur. Feliks throws awesome parties!"

"I'm sure your definition of awesome and my definition of awesome are very different, Alfred," Arthur said.

As the bell rang, Alfred picked up his saxophone case. "Just wait until Saturday, Artie. I'll prove I'm right."

* * *

**And another chapter done!**

**The lockdown drill in this chapter is loosely based on what happened in my band room for our lockdown drill. Actual members of the SWAT team come to our school, and at lunch that day we can sit in their cool helicopter. Of course, it's no fun if you're upstairs during the drill. You can't hear a thing there.**

**...Probably should end this AN before it gets too long. Peace out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, this is only a day late, and that's pretty good for me!**

**Remember how I mentioned there might be other pairings in this besides USUK? Well, there's a brief mention of PolLiet in here, but it's about two sentences long and easy to skip over.**

**Disclaimer: Tealgirl713 does not own Hetalia.**

* * *

Arthur had just sat down to read a book he'd just picked up when the doorbell rang.

"Arthur, could you please get that?" came the voice of his mother from upstairs.

"Of course, Mum," he called back. He reluctantly set down his book and walked over to the front door, opening it. Standing there was the last person Arthur wanted to see on a Saturday.

Alfred.

"Hi Artie!" he said enthusiastically, sending him a nearly blinding grin. "You ready to go?"

"Go where?" Arthur asked, confused.

"Feliks's party, of course!"

Oh. Of course. The party he'd been invited to. Alfred must be here to take him to it, but how did he know where Arthur lived in the first place?

"Where did you get my address?" Arthur asked, carefully avoiding answering Alfred's question.

"Oh, Kiku gave it to me," Alfred said. "So, are you coming? We gotta hurry, dude, it takes a while to get there.

"Er, about the party," Arthur began. He wasn't sure how to put this. "I don't think I can go."

"What's this I hear about a party?" a voice called from behind him. He turned around, and saw his mother standing at the bottom of the stairs. Arthur groaned. Now that his mother had heard about it, he'd probably have to attend. His mother was always insisting that he needed to go out and be more social.

"Oh, there's a party at our friend Feliks' house tonight!" Alfred said cheerfully. "I came to pick Artie up."

"Really?" his mother said. "Arthur, you never told me that." She turned to Alfred. "Of course he can go. I hope it isn't a bother to drive him."

"Nope! Not at all!"

While the two of them were talking some more, Arthur slowly backed out of the room. He was _not _going to that party. Not if he could help it. He was almost out the back door when he was sharply pulled back around the middle.

"Agh! Peter, get off!" he said, swatting at his younger brother Peter, who was now attempting to drag him back to the front door. His mother and Alfred heard the commotion and the two of them walked into the room.

"What's going on here?" his mother demanded.

"He's attacking me!"

"Peter, get off your brother."

"But he was trying to sneak out the back door!"

His mother affixed him with a steely glare that sent shivers down his spine. "Arthur, is this true? Were you trying to avoid going to your friend's party?"

Arthur gulped, swallowing the retort that no, Feliks was _not _his friend, and said, "No Mum, I was just getting a coat, that's all."

"Then grab it, and get out of here!"

"Yes, Mum." He grabbed a random coat off the hanger without complaint and glumly followed Alfred to the front door, where Alfred's car was waiting for them.

Alfred turned to Arthur's mother and said, "See you later, um-"

His mother smiled. "Just call me Rose, dear. And your name is…?"

"Alfred."

"Well Alfred, take good care of my Artie, okay?"

Alfred grinned. "Of course."

* * *

"Oh no. No. I am not going in that house. I am going home right now.""

"No!" Alfred yelled, grabbing a surprised Arthur by the arm. "Artie, you promised! You have to come!"

"My mother may call me 'Artie' but that doesn't mean you get to, you bloody git!" Arthur wrenched his arm out of Alfred's grip. "And you can't make me come to this stupid party if I don't want to!"

"But it's gonna be so much fun!" Alfred whined. "Why don't you wanna come?"

"Use proper grammar. It's 'going to' and 'want to', Alfred. And I don't want to come because I don't like loud parties."

"You really are an old man, aren't ya, Artie?" Alfred teased before starting to drag Arthur towards the house.

"An old man? I'm the same bloody age as you are!" Arthur tried to pull out of Alfred's tight grip but it wasn't working.

"Yeah, but you're what my mom calls an…an 'old soul'," Alfred explained. "Y'know, stuffy, stuck up, bossy-"

"I am not!" Arthur interrupted.

"-angry, too," Alfred finished. "You need to relax, dude. Take a load off. That's why you need to come to this party."

Arthur sighed. No use trying to win this argument. "Fine, I'll come, but I won't have you dragging me in there like a pet to show off." He finally managed to pull away from Alfred, but continued to walk next to him.

When they reached the front door, Alfred reached out and rang the doorbell. They were hardly waiting five seconds before the door opened to reveal Elizaveta, who smiled at the two of them.

"Hi guys! Glad you could make it!" she yelled over the deafening noise in the background. "Come in!" She stood back to let them enter the house.

The party was completely insane. Within the first five seconds Arthur was in the house, he noticed at least five disco balls hanging from the ceiling in the main room alone, music so loud it pounded not only in his ears, but in his heart as well, and more people than should have been able to fit inside the house.

"Feliks' parents are okay with this?" Arthur asked.

"His parents are out of town!" Alfred shouted back, grinning that bloody grin of his. "Feliks does this all the time. He's never been caught. I bet it's hell to clean up, though."

Arthur blinked in surprise. Feliks, the person that screamed like a girl, who refused to participate in P.E because he might get a little sweaty, who was the only male flute player in the entire school district, was a rebel? This was new.

"Speaking of, where is Feliks?" Elizaveta asked to no one in particular. "I haven't seen him all night." Her question was answered by none other than Francis.

"Oh, Feliks is upstairs with Toris," he said while grinning lecherously. "If you know what I mean."

Elizaveta grinned back at him. "I'm going to go and say hi to them, then!" She hurried off, to the stairs, Arthur presumed.

"_Salut, mes amis!" _Francis said, turning now to face Arthur and Alfred.

"I'm not your friend," Arthur said quickly.

"Oh Arthur, you wound me!" Francis said, dramatically clutching a hand over his heart.

"Sod off, frog."

Francis left after that, still acting like a little drama queen.

"You see?" Arthur said, now facing Alfred. "This is why I don't go to parties. I always end up running into people that I don't like."

"Then you're lucky I'm here!" Alfred said, grinning at him.

"I never said I liked you, either."

"But you do."

"No I don't."

Alfred poked Arthur's cheek. "Come on, dude! I like you!"

Arthur pushed his hand away. "You doing stupid things like that is exactly the reason I don't like you."

"Fine! Then I dedicate this evening to making you like me!" Alfred looked very excited by this idea, while Arthur rolled his eyes and turned away from him. Luckily for Arthur, a distraction arrived in the form of Lovino's younger, nicer, and much more energetic brother, Feliciano.

"Hi guys!" he said, right into Arthur's ear. "Cool party, huh?"

"Delightful," Arthur replied dryly, rubbing at the ear Feliciano had just shouted into. "Er, are there any alcoholic beverages at this party?"

"Yeah! But _mi fratello _won't let me have any."

"Wonderful," Arthur said. "Feliciano, it was lovely chatting with you, but there is a drink over there with my name on it."

He strode over to the kitchen with more purpose than he'd had all night, Alfred following, still not giving up in his quest to get Arthur to like him by the end of the night.

* * *

It should be said that Arthur has had a drink before, such as champagne at family weddings and even a bit of rum with his uncle once. But the drinks at this party weren't as watered down as beer, or even rum. No, they were straight-up Polish vodka, much stronger than anything Arthur had ever drunk before.

Needless to say, he was completely wasted by his third shot.

Alfred, who had not been drinking, watched in dismay as Arthur slammed yet another shot glass down on the counter.

"Artie…maybe you should stop," he suggested.

"Stop? What're you talking about?" Arthur slurred, his words blending together. He reached for the bottle of rum, ready to fill up another glass, but Alfred pulled his hands away. "Hey!"

"You've had enough," Alfred said forcefully.

"You can't tell me what to do! I'm a bloody fluffy unicorn!"

Yikes. If Arthur couldn't even tell that he was human anymore, then he _really _needed to stop drinking. After a few minutes of struggling, Alfred finally managed to pull Arthur away from his drink and halfway down the driveway to his car before Arthur slumped into unconsciousness. He breathed a sigh of relief as he got Arthur into the backseat and bucked him in. At least no Arthur wouldn't be trying to get back to the drinks. But now Alfred had another problem.

How was he supposed to get Arthur back home?

There was no way Arthur's parents would be okay with Arthur consuming so much alcohol, or any at all. Alfred knew his parents would have been furious. Luckily for him, his parents were out of town for the weekend…

And then it hit him. He could bring Arthur to his place until he got the alcohol out of his system. Matt wouldn't tell his parents about it, and Arthur wouldn't get in trouble! And once Arthur woke up and found out what was going on, he would _have _to be Alfred's friend! It was a perfect plan, and It made Alfred smile to himself as he pulled out of Feliks' driveway, the party still going strong behind him.

* * *

"Al…you practically kidnapped him," Matthew said in exasperation once he had seen Alfred drag Arthur into the house.

"Nu-uh!" Alfred protested. "I'm making sure he doesn't get in trouble with his parents. I'm _helping _him.

"And did Arthur give you permission to bring him here?" Alfred went silent, looking down at his feet. "Exactly. If it's not consensual, then it's kidnapping."

Alfred put on his best pouty face; his eyes seemed to double in size. "Pwease, Mattie?" he asked in a baby voice. "Pwease? He can sleep in my room."

Matthew let out his breath in a huff. "Fine. But if he's angry when he wakes up, you're taking all the blame." Then Matthew left to go to his own room, leaving Alfred to bring Arthur upstairs all by himself.

"Thanks a lot, Matt," he muttered.

* * *

The next morning, Arthur woke up with the most painful headache he'd ever had in his life. He groaned, sitting up groggily and tried to get rid of the pain. Looking around, he noticed something. This was most definitely not his room.

"Bollocks," he cursed softly as the door began to creak open. In walked Alfred, who looked pleasantly surprised to see him awake.

"Hi Artie!" he said, his already loud voice especially grating on Arthur's ears this morning. "Glad to see you're up!" He walked over to the window and threw open the curtains, letting the morning light shine inside.

"Bloody hell!" Arthur exclaimed, diving under the blanket. "Shut the godforsaken sun off!" From his hiding place underneath the blanket, Arthur could hear the curtain being pulled back down.

"Sorry, Artie!" Alfred called. Arthur poked his head back out into the open air.

"Why am I in your bedroom?" He asked, having inferred that was where he was.

"Oh, I took you home after the party last night. You were _really_ drunk. And don't worry, I called your mom so she knows not to worry."

"Shouldn't have let me drink so much," Arthur mumbled, his arms crossed over his chest.

"What do you mean? I couldn't have stopped you if I tried!"

"Still your fault."

"Aren't you even going to say 'thank you'? I could have left you at that party, but I brought you to my house. I let you sleep in my bed." Alfred looked really pissed off. "And now I'm kinda regretting that I did."

Arthur groaned as he sat up again, his headache worse than ever. He let out a long sigh as he said, "Yes, I suppose I should thank you. I've no idea how much trouble I'd be in if my mum saw me like this. Speaking of, where are _your _parents, Alfred?"

Alfred sat down at the edge of the bed. "They're in Hawaii. It's their 25th anniversary."

"Really? Well, good for them. It's nice to see a couple that actually sticks together through the years."

"Yeah," Alfred laughed. "What about your parents?" Arthur's expression turned dark. "Or not, if you don't want to talk about it."

"No, it's fine," Arthur said. "I haven't told anyone about this before, so it's just a little weird for me."

Alfred scooted closer, indicating he was ready to listen. Arthur took a deep breath, and then he began.

"My mother and father got married at a very young age. They were madly in love, or so I've heard from my aunt. I was boon soon after the wedding. And I think that's when everything started to change. My first years weren't very happy, as I remember it. Then Mum got pregnant again, with Peter. Once he was born, Father completely lost interest in us, and spent more and more time at his work than he did at home. One day Mum had enough and filed for divorce. Once it got through and everything was settled, we moved to America."

Once Arthur had finished, he leaned back into the pillow, feeling exhausted from telling his story. Alfred looked down at him with a mixture of pity and sadness.

"Oh my God, I'm really sorry, dude," he said in the quietest voice Arthur had ever heard from him.

"It's fine, Alfred," he sighed. "I was never very close to my father anyway." His head gave a particularly painful throb, and he winced.

"D'you want some aspirin or something?" Alfred said. "You gotta have a really bad headache."

Arthur nodded. "That would be lovely." Arthur got up and left the room. While he was gone, Arthur got a chance to look around a little bit.

It was an average-sized room, painted a blue that wasn't quite light, but not quite dark either. The wall behind Alfred's bed was covered with a large American flag. Looking across the room to the desk. Arthur could see a couple of model airplanes from WWII.

He wanted to walk over to look closely at them, but the door opened and in walked Alfred, carrying aspirin and a glass of water.

"Thank you," Arthur said as the glass was set down on the bedside table. "Sorry I've caused you so much trouble."

"No, it's fine," Alfred said. "What are friends for, anyways?"

"Friends?"

"Of course we're friends, dude!" Alfred exclaimed. "Now come on, take your aspirin."

"Yes Mum," Arthur replied jokingly. But he smiled as he took his aspirin. He had a friend now, his first true friend since arriving in America.

And he was determined to keep him.

* * *

**I hope I did the transition into friendship alright. It seems okay when I look back on it, but I'm the writer.**

**Any reviews and feedback would be greatly appreciated, and I'll see you all again in (hopefully) two weeks!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yeah... I'm really bad at sticking to a writing schedule. That, and I can get a writer's block pretty easily. Hopefully I've managed to work through this latest one. It just took me a while to figure out exactly where I was headed with this. But I think I've got it now. So, without further ado, here's the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Tealgirl713 does not own Hetalia.**

* * *

If there was one class in school that Arthur detested with all his might, it was math. Science was alright, a bit confusing at times, history was easy enough, English was his best and favorite subject, but math was horrendous. The numbers were so confusing, and they had just begun to learn about equations with three variables in them. As if two variables weren't confusing enough.

This was how Arthur came to be hunched over his textbook during a break in band class, trying desperately to finish his math homework. He only had a few problems left, but break time was trickling away fast, and the problems made next to no sense to him. His brain was beginning to hurt and the numbers and letters were blending together to form a blurry mess.

In a final outburst of frustration, Arthur threw his textbook at the wall, but as it was so heavy, it only traveled a few feet before crashing down onto the floor, the noise slightly muffled by the carpet.

He was about to go pick the book back up, but someone got there before him. The book was placed back in his lap by none other than Alfred, who had noticed Arthur's struggle with his homework from all the way across the room. "Need some help?"

"No!" Arthur said defiantly. Alfred just looked at him, disbelief apparent in his eyes. "Oh, fine. I can't figure out these blasted three variable equations!" Arthur was a bit embarrassed to ask for help, but he needed to finish the bloody homework assignment.

"Oh, those? Those are easy!" Alfred pulled up a chair next to Arthur's and sat down, pulling the textbook over so it was shared between the two of them. "Take this problem, for instance." He pointed to the one Arthur had just been struggling with. "You're supposed to classify the system, right? So you have to take two equations at a time and get rid of one of the variables." Alfred took the pencil and graphing notebook from Arthur and starting writing on it. "You with me so far?"

Arthur nodded. But could you go a bit slower?"

"Of course!" Alfred looked absolutely delighted to be helping Arthur with his math, which made no sense to Arthur. How could anyone be so excited about _math, _of all things? But Alfred kept up his abnormally high level of enthusiasm, and was able to get Arthur to successfully complete a few problems on his own.

Arthur didn't have long to bask in the glory of his success before Mr. Edelstein was up at the front of the room, calling the class back to their seats.

"I apologize for taking such a long break," Mr. Edelstein said. "but _someone_," here he threw a nasty look at Gilbert, "decided it would be funny to try and lock me in my office."

"Dude! Nice one!" Alfred said, reaching over to give Gilbert a high five. Mr. Edelstein shot him a glare.

"Luckily for Gilbert, I'm in a forgiving mood today so he will not be getting as severe a punishment as he usually would. Gilbert, you are to sort music in my office for the rest of the class. My students from past years have left a lovely mess for you to clean up."

Gilbert groaned and slumped over to Mr. Edelstein's office, where a huge stack of music sheets was waiting for him. He shot Mr. Edelstein a nasty glare before slamming the door behind him.

"Now then, since that buffoon is no longer in the room, I have an announcement to make. In a few weeks, right before Thanksgiving, we will be competing in a regional band competition. I feel that this will be a very good opportunity for all of you to get better at your respective instruments."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. He'd been with this band since September, and he wasn't really sure if they were ready for a competition. Not that the skill level was low-far from it, actually-but most of the students messed around so much that they never got anything done. He couldn't see how they could possible prepare a song in two weeks.

By this time, most of the class had voiced their opinions on the matter.

"That sounds awesome!"

"Do we get to miss school?"

"Do we _have _to miss school?"

Mr. Edelstein raised his hand and the whole class quieted down. Arthur was surprised; he'd never seen the class this quiet this fast. "I realize you all have questions, and I will do my best to answer them. Yes, Eduard?"

Eduard, a clarinet player, lowered his hand and began to speak. "What day is the contest, and are we missing school for it?"

"The contest is on the 22nd, the Friday before Thanksgiving, so yes, you will be missing school. You will take around a permission form for all your teachers to sign. I'll answer more questions about it as the date gets closer, but for now, I'm going to hand out some music for you to try out."

When Arthur received his copy of the music, he looked over it. Ooh, this was going to be difficult. He could see the song had a huge range. He'd have to play all the way up to an A, and this was only the second trumpet part. He hated to think of what the first trumpets had. And then he heard a complaint coming from his left.

"What? Double high C? I can't play that!" Arthur's fellow trumpet player, Mathias, said. "There's no way!"

"Tough, Mr. K øhler," Mr. Edelstein said. "You will have to figure it out."

"It's not like a C is even that hard," Alfred said to Arthur. "Just watch me!" Alfred proceeded to play a scale all the way up to the double high C note on his music.

"Alfred, a C on a saxophone is very different from a C on a trumpet," Arthur explained. "Playing a C on a saxophone is like playing a G on the trumpet. Everyone can hit that."

"Oh," Alfred said. "Still, shouldn't it be easy? It's not that hard to get up high on this thing."

"Yes, but trumpets only have three valves. We have to tighten our lips to get out a higher sound, and that's pretty hard for some people. I can hit it sometimes, once I've warmed up for a little while."

"Can I hear?" Alfred asked.

Arthur rolled his eyes, but his retort was stopped by Mr. Edelstein bringing the class back to attention. "I believe you've had sufficient time to look this piece over. Try to do your best when we run through it, please. The better you do today, the less you will have to practice at home."

"Shouldn't we bring Gil back in before we start?" Antonio asked.

"Leave him in there," Elizaveta called out. "He deserves it."

"Gilbert's punishment was sorting music for the rest of the class, so that is what will happen," Mr. Edelstein said, a bit annoyed. "Now, if there are no further interruptions, I'd like to start the music now."

Arthur couldn't agree more, and as the low brass started the song, he played through the more difficult rhythms in his head. It wasn't that hard, once he thought about them for a minute.

A few measures before he started playing, he turned his head to look over at Alfred's music, and was surprised to see the sheer amount of rests Alfred had in this song. In fact, he didn't even start playing until sixteen measures after Arthur. Before he had more time to dwell on this, however, he had one measure left to get ready.

It was a difficult piece, that was for sure. Not only was the key signature different than usual (Four sharps? Really?), but there were plenty of accidentals, extra flats and sharps thrown in. Through his frenzied scramble to press the right valves down at the right times, he barely had time to register what the rest of the band sounded like. But it wasn't much of a surprise when Mr. Edelstein stopped the band halfway through the song.

He had closed his eyes and was breathing slowly through his nose. Arthur had come to learn that look meant he was frustrated. As he usually was, when it came to their band.

After a moment of silence, he looked at them all. "Well, I could tell that some of you tried your best while others were…lacking." Here he made eye contact with a few saxophones and Mathias. "I'll give you two minutes to look over the music again, and then we'll take it from measure sixty-eight."

Once he stopped talking, Alfred turned to Arthur. "Hey Artie, could you help me figure out this one rhythm? I don't get it."

Resisting the urge to correct him again, Arthur looked over to where Alfred was pointing. It was the same rhythm he had for a part of the song. "Alright, so you're confused by the eighth rests, aren't you?" Alfred nodded. "Well, all you need to do is count it in your head. One-and-two-and-three-and-four-and. That's what I do."

"Oh," Alfred said. "That makes sense. So I just count in my head?"

"Yes. It makes things a lot easier."

"I'll remember that! Thanks a bunch, Artie!"

* * *

After they'd ran through the song a few more times, and Mr. Edelstein no longer acted like he wanted to bang his head against the wall, the class began to pack up. As the next class in the room was choir, they had the misfortune of putting away the percussion, and since there were only four drummers back there, they required extra help. So Arthur went back there to help push the timpanis back into the closet. When he turned around to pick up his backpack and instrument, he noticed his instrument was gone, _again. _Having a pretty good idea of who'd taken it, he looked to the door, where, sure enough, Alfred was pushing past people, Arthur's instrument in tow.

Arthur swung his backpack on and followed him, practically running into Matthew on the way out.

"I am so sorry, Matthew!" he said. "It's just- Alfred, he-"

"Took your instrument?" Matthew smiled. "He used to do that to me all the time, back when we were freshmen. He'll give it back."

Arthur sighed. "I know. I just wish he wouldn't do it."

Matthew shrugged. "It's just Al's way of showing he cares. You should probably follow him. Don't want to be late for class, do you?"

"No," Arthur said as he hurried out of the nearly empty classroom and down the hall, following Alfred to their second period class once more.

* * *

**Yay, another chapter done!**

**I've decided to do a little music theory lesson at the end of every chapter in case people don't know what I'm talking about. But if you happen to know a lot about music and instruments, you can probably just skip past this section. Unless, of course, you'd like to read it.**

**The difference between instrument notes: Alfred's instrument is a Eb alto saxophone, and Arthur's instrument is a Bb trumpet. This means that when Alfred plays a Eb, Arthur would have to play a Bb to match his pitch. **

**Trumpet range: To play a trumpet, you put your lips together and make a buzzing sound into the mouthpiece. To get a higher sound, you tighten your lips and push more air through. For some people, this is pretty difficult. I used to play the trumpet, but once I got braces, it was really hard for me to reach the higher notes, so I switched to euphonium instead.**

**Key signatures and accidentals: A key signature tells you which notes are sharp (raised) or flat (lowered) in a song. It's more common for trumpet players to see music with up to three flats, and up to two sharps. So seeing four sharps was really disconcerting for Arthur. Accidentals are extra flats and sharps that are written in right next to a note to change it for the rest of the measure.**

**I think that's it. People can always PM me with more questions if they have any. Please review and tell me what you think of my story!**

**Bye!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hehe. Hehe.**

**You all thought I was dead, didn't you?**

**Well, don't worry. I'm back and it's the summer now, so updates should be much faster. I promise.**

**Disclaimer: Tealgirl713 does not own Hetalia or any pieces of music mentioned in this story.**

After two weeks of practicing, the day had finally arrived. The permission forms were all signed and in, and they were pronounced ready to go by Mr. Edelstein. The band had assembled outside in the bus lane, and they were just waiting for it to show up.

"It's, like, way too cold outside!" Feliks said. "When's the bus supposed to get here?"

"I don't know!" Toris said. "But I'm sure it will be soon!"

Alfred turned to Arthur, both of them sitting on the half-walls in front of the school. "I'm bored."

"You're always bored when you're not stuffing your face."

"Hey!"

Arthur laughed. "Well, it's true. I don't think you even stopped to breathe at lunch yesterday before you finished all your food. I've never seen someone eat so fast in my life."

"That's because you've never met someone as awesome as me," Alfred said, striking a heroic pose.

"Keep talking like that and people will start mistaking you for Gilbert." Arthur pointed over to where he was sitting next to Elizaveta, who looked really annoyed.

"Ha, he's never gonna get her to say yes." Arthur gave Alfred a questioning look. "Oh, Gil's been trying at ask Lizzy out for years. She always turns him down. You'd think he'd give up by now, but he keeps trying."

"Poor bloke." As they watched the two bickering, Arthur saw a yellow shape out of the corner of his eye. He turned toward it, and saw that the bus was coming.

Arthur stored his trumpet under the bus quickly so that he could be one of the first people on, and Alfred followed close behind him. They went to the middle of the bus, where Arthur sat down, figuring that Alfred would sit in the seat across from him. Much to his displeasure, Alfred sat down right next to him, pushing Arthur up against the window.

"There's plenty of seat left for you!" Arthur said. "Why do you have to push me into the corner?"

"A dude's gotta stretch, bro!" Alfred answered, promptly taking up as much of the seat as he could. Arthur thought his predicament couldn't get any worse, but then all three members of the Bad Touch Trio decided to show up. Antonio and Gilbert sat in front of them, and Francis unfortunately plopped down right across from them. Arthur groaned and closed his eyes. This was going to be a long bus ride.

* * *

Arthur was about ready to strangle someone by the time he got off that bus. Starting with Alfred. The oaf had taken up so much of the seat that Arthur barely had any room to move. And Francis had decided to tease him about it the entire way there. At least Gilbert and Antonio had left. Judging by the angry shouts in Italian coming from the back of the bus, he'd gathered that Antonio had moved next to Lovino. Poor bloke. The Spaniard by himself was a little overbearing, but put him near Lovino, and he got ten times worse.

Mr. Edelstein stood up at the front of the bus and pulled down the radio above the driver's head.

"Alright, once you grab your instruments from underneath the bus, follow me to the multipurpose room, where we will leave our instruments until it is our turn to perform." He put the radio back and walked outside, with the students following.

"Are ya nervous, Artie?" Alfred asked as he pulled out his saxophone case from the bus.

"Arthur," he corrected as he pulled out his trumpet. "And no, I'm not nervous. It's not like we're terrible, and even if we don't do great today, then who cares? It's just a regional competition."

"But don't you want to do well?" Alfred said, ignoring the correction. "You're such a perfectionist at other things."

"Of course I want to do well, I'm just saying that it's not the end of the world if we don't." As they talked, they followed their bandmates into the high school hosting the competition.

"Oh, well that's impressive," Arthur said as they walked into the school foyer. As the students entered the building, they were greeted by a stained glass wall that stretched up to the ceiling, with numerous twisted glass sculptures hanging from the ceiling. They were multicolored and caught the morning light as it filtered through the window, bouncing light everywhere. Arthur wanted to stare at it a bit more, but Alfred was tugging at his arm. He supposed he'd go take a closer look later.

When they got to the multipurpose room, everyone set down their instruments in a big glob by the corner of the room. Mr. Edelstein then announced that they had time to watch one school band perform before they were due to warm up. Everyone filed out of the room and walked to the auditorium, where they took up seats in the back of the audience. Arthur seated himself in the front row, and Alfred plopped down beside him.

"Do you think the other schools are gonna be good?" Alfred asked.

"It's 'going to'. Honestly, you need to put more work into your grammar. And I have no idea how good the other bands are going to be. Probably decent, if they bothered to show up here."

Alfred looked at a program he'd picked up in the multipurpose room. "Huh, looks like the band that's up next is playing a song named after a planet!"

"Which one?" Arthur asked.

"Jupiter," Alfred replied. "I didn't know there was a song about Jupiter!"

"Yes, Gustav Holst wrote a song for each of the planets, excepting Earth and Pluto."

Alfred looked surprised. "Why not Pluto? Is it because Pluto isn't a planet anymore? Because it totally is! Those stupid assholes that classified it as a dwarf planet don't know what they're talking about."

"No, it's not because Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet. Pluto wasn't even discovered yet when Holst wrote the songs."

"Oh, I see," Alfred said. Before they could say anything more, the lights in the auditorium dimmed and a group of musicians took the stage. By the dim light left in the auditorium, Arthur read on Alfred's program that they were the band from the school hosting the competition. He wondered how good they would be, and more importantly, how their band would compare to Arthur's band.

After the musicians were settled, an announcer took the stage, plucking the microphone out of its holder.

"Welcome, everyone, to the Green River Music Region annual contest for high school bands!" the man said, flashing a smile to the audience. "I am pleased to report that this year's competition is larger than it ever has been. However, because of this, we had to limit each band to one song apiece. Otherwise, we'd be here until after five, and none of us want that!"

He looked around the audience, as if expecting them to laugh. When no one did, the smile slid off his face and he cleared his throat. "Every band has a half hour of warm-up, followed by their performance. And now, without further ado, I present to you the Keagan Valley High School band and their director, Adam Fisher!"

The audience clapped as the director made his way up to the stage. He took the microphone from the announcer and said, "Thank you very much for that warm welcome! Today, our band will be playing _Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity_, composed by Gustav Holst and arranged for concert band by Alan Richmond."

The director turned around, and raised his baton as a sign for the band to put their instruments up. He swished it a few times, and the song begun.

The band was good, that much Arthur could tell. He could tell that they had a good grasp of the character of the song and that they practiced, which was more than he could say for his own band, unfortunately. The band performed the difficult piece well, until they hit the slower section.

What had been a beautiful piece of music, while not losing all of its beauty, faded in musicality as Arthur could hear notes in the key signature played natural instead of flat. He winced when he could hear important chords butchered by the less careful musicians. Once they came back to the faster finale of the song, they recovered, but it didn't erase the mistakes from the earlier section.

When they'd finished, everyone in the audience clapped. Arthur was nudged on the shoulder by Alfred, indicating that it was time to head to the warm-up room. Arthur felt a slight twinge of nervousness in his stomach, but shook it off. He would be fine, no matter what happened.

After they picked up their instruments from the multipurpose room, Arthur and Alfred walked together to the warm up room.

"Dude, did you hear that part in the middle?" Alfred exclaimed. "They totally sucked!"

"They didn't 'suck'," Arthur protested. "They just missed the key signature, that's all. And you're one to talk. You miss the exact same F# every single time we play our song."

"What? No I don't!"

"Yes, you do. Circle it, or something. You make the already terrible sound of the saxophones sound even worse."

"Saxophones are awesome, I don't know what you're talking about," Alfred said, giving his instrument a little pat. "The trumpets, on the other hand, sound like dying animals every time they tune."

"That's not our fault!" Arthur was turning slightly red in the face from anger. "Our instruments are different! The brass bends depending on the temperature so we have to retune them a lot. All you have to do is stick in your reed and you're good."

"Nu-uh! Our reeds have to be wet, otherwise they don't work! You can just screw your mouthpiece in, but I have to hold mine in my mouth for several minutes!"

Suddenly, they heard a voice from behind them.

"Hey, lovebirds, room's back here!" It was Elizaveta. She was standing about twenty feet back, and gesturing to an open door. "You could keep arguing if you'd like, but I thought you'd want to know where the rest of us will be."

The two of them turned around and followed Elizaveta into the room, where they were met with a wall of sound, protruding mostly from the alto saxophones and the trumpets, as per usual. Arthur could say whatever he wanted about the saxophones, but he had to admit that his section was annoying sometimes, too. They hurried to join their respective sections and started getting warmed up.

After about five minutes, Mr. Edelstein called the band to order. "I'd like to run through measures 177 through 213 at least once, so Mathias, Francis, and Lovino can practice their solos."

Arthur had to flip his sheet music around to find the right measure. Their piece was titled _Fate of the Gods_, and it featured a section where the trumpet, the French horn and the trombone had simultaneous solos, meant to symbolize horns warning the people of the arrival of Loki and his army. Alfred had said that it reminded him of _The Avengers_. Arthur had called him a twat.

They played through the section Mr. Edelstein had specified only once, because the trumpet and French horn solos were rather high and to make Mathias and Francis' lips sore would be a very bad idea.

Before they left the room to head to the auditorium, Mr. Edelstein wished them all good luck, and gave them a few last minute reminders. They left him behind in the warm up room and went to line up outside the auditorium.

Alfred passed the time waiting by playing rock, paper, scissors with Matthew while Arthur leaned up against the wall and talked with Vash and Lilli. Lilli was visibly nervous about the performance and Vash was reassuring her that it would be okay. Arthur joined in, telling her that she was a great flute player and she would do fine. Arthur was more worried about Mathias' solo, himself. The last few times they'd played through that section, Mathias had failed to reach the higher notes of his solo. Arthur hoped he'd be able to reach them in the heat of competition.

All too quickly, students from the host school that had volunteered were ushering them onto the stage. Arthur and Alfred found their seats in the middle of the second row and sat down, placing their sheet music on the stands provided. Alfred turned to Arthur and said, "Good luck, Artie. I know you're going to do awesome!"

Arthur smiled. "You too."

The announcer from before came up on the stage again and announced their school and director. Mr. Edelstein came up, announced their song, and turned to the band. He flicked his baton. _One, two, ready, go_.

When Arthur looked back on that performance, he was proud of his band. They took a difficult piece and made it sound good. The solo section went without a hitch; Mathias was able to reach his high notes. Even Mr. Edelstein looked happy with their performance.

When they were finished, the audience clapped and the band exited the stage. They went back to the multipurpose room and dropped off their instruments.

"Can we have lunch now?" Alfred said when Mr. Edelstein joined them.

"Yes, you may have lunch now. Meet me back here in one hour."

Alfred grabbed Arthur's hand and practically dragged him to the cafeteria, where a few of their bandmates already were. The snagged a couple of seats at a table with Mathias and Lukas, another fellow trumpet of Arthur's.

After a few minutes of eating, Mathias spoke up. "Hey Alfred, I'll give you five bucks to walk around to all of the Keagan Valley kids and pretend you're a kid from Ukraine or some shit to get money off of 'em."

"Dude, I'm only doing that if you pretend to be my dying brother who only speaks Ukrainian."

"Deal!" Mathias exclaimed. Lukas looked over at Arthur, and both of them simultaneously rolled their eyes. The gesture was simple, but the meaning was clear: _Our friends are idiots_.

Within five minutes, Alfred and Mathias were parading around the cafeteria, pretending to be a pair of brothers from Ukraine. The poor students looked so confused. Arthur listened in to the first table they went to.

"Hello!" Alfred said in an accent that sounded more like butchered Russian than Ukrainian. "My brother and I are from Ukraine, and we are very poor. My brother, he is very sick." Here, he nudged Mathias lightly with his elbow. Mathias began to cough, very realistically as far as Arthur was concerned. After about ten seconds of coughing, Alfred started to talk again. "If you could spare just a few dollars, it would be very helpful."

The table was full of what appeared to be freshmen, and, not knowing any better, they all pulled out their wallets and gave Alfred money, which he put into his pocket. He smiled, and the two of them walked away, looking for another table to victimize. Arthur just stood there, effectively put into shock.

* * *

Eventually, the hour had passed and the band met Mr. Edelstein in the multipurpose room. Behind him, Arthur could hear Mathias recounting his and Alfred's adventures to a few of his friends. Everyone picked up their instruments, and they headed back out to the bus, which was waiting for them.

"So how much money _did _you get?" Arthur asked once they were out of the school's parking lot.

"About fifty dollars," Alfred said. "Mathias and I split it, pus he owes me the five for doing it, so I actually have about thirty bucks now."

"Nice. What are you going to do with it?"

Alfred blew some air out through his nose. "I want to spend it on something stupid like candy or something, but my dad's really pushing for me to pay as much as my college tuition as I can."

"Ah," Arthur replied. "I've been saving up for a few years now, so my mum should only have to pay for about half of it. It's so expensive to go to college, though."

"God, I know." Alfred put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the seat. "Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it, Artie. College and all that."

Arthur turned to Alfred, surprised. "I thought you wanted to go to college so you can get a good job."

"Yeah, and I do. It's just so damn expensive. Maybe I should just join the army instead. Or I could train to become a pilot and fly in the Air Force. That'd be cool."

Arthur laughed. "Well, if you do decide to join the army, promise me you won't get yourself blown up, yeah? I'd hate to lose a friend."

"I promise," Alfred said, holding up a pinky. "I even swear on it."

Arthur twisted his pinkie together with Alfred's, and they let their hands fall back down as they turned to watch Mathias do another reenactment of Alfred's horrible Ukrainian accent.

* * *

**Jupiter is probably my favorite piece of music from The Planets. Mars is a close second.**

**My band played Fate of the Gods for our competition way back in March. We weren't as good as I imagine Al and Art's band is. The story of the song is actually based around Norse legends. It's pretty cool, you should go look it up.**

**Sorry this chapter was a bit slow in the action department. Things should start to pick up soon between our two lovebirds. Maybe even in the next chapter~.**

**See you next time, my lovely readers! Don't forget to review! It's what writers like me survive on!**


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